Amazon sell fakes!

[cd365]

My sister saw my Raspberry Pi setup running Kodi (XBMC) and wanted me to set one up for her. SO I emailed her a list of what she needed including a 4Gb Toshiba Micro SD card sold by Amazon (not fulfilled by Amazon).I got it up and running for her but twice she had problems and I reinstalled Kodi. The third time I swapped an SD card with her and she has had no problems since. So last night I went to put the music files that I had on my card (for use in my car) onto this Toshiba micro SD card, Windows told me I didn't have enough space. Upon checking I noticed that it was only a 256Mb card but badged up as 4Gb!!

I'm very careful of what I buy on eBay and Amazon (with their affiliate scheme) when buying certain things. Didn't expect Amazon to be just as bad!

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I have heard of this before but with USB Flash Drives, if I buy USB Flash Drives or SD/Micro SD from Amazon I will only buy them when sold by Amazon no way would I get them from one of the other sellers on there.

I also buy from MyMemory who are usually cheap but can have a long turn around, I have known orders take 2 weeks but I have never had a single problem with them and I have been buying from them for years.

 

[cd365]

This was Amazon as the seller!!!! This is what has shocked me. I've had dealings before with other selling fake goods through Amazon and complained to Amazon who were loathe to do anything to the seller. I now know the reason, they are at it as well!

I quite like MyMemory as well

 

[Octet]

It might not be because the SD card is dodgy.

When you write an OS to the card as you're required to do to boot from it in a Raspberry Pi, it shall re-write the file tables and partitions on the device. What this means is it will often lock certain parts of the disk and prevent you from using it (hence why your available space is significantly reduced). You will need to perform a low level format in order to recover the available space, by using something like DiskPart (available as standard in Windows, via the command line).

The reason it does this is to stop the filesystem of the OS (the bits which you can access) from overwriting things like the Kernel.

 

[cd365]

I had performed a low level format!

 

[User33236]

You state in your opinion that your order was sold, but not fulfilled, by Amazon. I think the point phil_hg_uk was trying to make was that, like me, he'd only buy stuff like that from Amazon if they both sold and fulfilled it.

 

[Octet]

I had performed a low level format!

Is that by right clicking and going to properties, this won't do a low enough format as it doesn't actually clear the filetables.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

You state in your opinion that your order was sold, but not fulfilled, by Amazon. I think the point phil_hg_uk was trying to make was that, like me, he'd only buy stuff like that from Amazon if they both sold and fulfilled it.

Yes that's what I meant or if it was been sold by the manufacturer for instance Kingston USB Flash Drives been sold on Amazon by Kingston themselves.

 

[cd365]

Is that by right clicking and going to properties, this won't do a low enough format as it doesn't actually clear the filetables.

I used a couple of low level formatting applications that I'd used in the past to format SD cards. They normally recover the linux partition.

 

[ayceejay]

I don't understand Amazons policy regarding stuff that appears on their web site but fulfilled by a third party I have had a number of problems with this and told Amazon who do nothing. There was a tub of Vittoria Mastik pictured and the price was good ($25) but what I received was a small tube value $5 at most, I did return it and got my money back but this item is still shown like that now.

 

[drummerbod]

So Amazon didn't send you a dodgy card - the fulfiller did.

Amazon customer service has been excellent for me whenevr I have an issue fulfilled by Amazon or otherwise.

 

[CopperCyclist]

The main question is surely what did Amazon say when you complained?

 

[byegad]

Exactly, I've had the odd issue with items bought on amazon, where over the last few years, I've spent £x000 on anything from a cheap SD card to High end cameras as well as clothing, cycle parts and household goods. Looking at their 'fail' rate they are rather good, although last year their next day delivery had a bad patch of several months where stuff didn't turn up as promised, this seems to be over and they're back to a good service.

Their customer services / refunds are first class.

 

[cd365]

So Amazon didn't send you a dodgy card - the fulfiller did.

Amazon customer service has been excellent for me whenevr I have an issue fulfilled by Amazon or otherwise.

Amazon was the only company involved

The main question is surely what did Amazon say when you complained?

Typical Amazon, send the card back and they will refund

 

[irw]

Have you had a look at the card with some sort of partition manager?